Last updated: January 31, 2023

In the Weeds

by Travis Mullis

Pinky’s Westside Grill, a spin-off of the now-notorious Penguin Drive-In, has had the honor and heavy weight of appearing in multiple episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Don’t be confused by the so-called Penguin now operating on East Boulevard; it is little like the original, dive legend it was named after. Pinky’s Westside Grill, on the other hand, is seemingly a perfect fit for the show. Greg Auten, the chef and owner, even shares some characteristics of Triple D host Guy Fieri. With reality TV, it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s acting, but Pinky’s is the real deal — not simply content to coast on its television fame. As Auten likes to say, “That’s good eat’n, bubba!”

The first thing that sets Pinky’s apart from your average beer joint slinging mediocre wings and sandwiches is immediate right as you pull into the parking lot. It isn’t everyday that you see a’ 60s-era Volkswagen Beetle painted with the American flag sitting comfortably atop a restaurant roof, but there it is atop Pinky’s, proudly declaring its iconoclastic attitude for all of Charlotte to see. Pinky’s interior further plays up its off-kilter attitude and punk-rock sensibilities. The blend of tiki, motorcycle, Southern rock, and old-fashioned Americana elements mesh well, against the odds. 

The menu at Pinky’s is certainly larger than it needs to be, with certain items like their salads and the fried baskets included to cater to less curious diners and the more health conscious. I’ve never seen anyone order the Tony Baloney, a quarter-pound cut of the notorious meat that has the olfactory ability to make people flee the room when it’s frying. But I can’t help but smile when I see the loving inclusion of items like the Velvet Elvis, an homage to the King’s favorite sandwich that contributed to expanding waistline late in his career. Pinky’s takes crunchy peanut butter, spicy honey, cream cheese, sliced bananas, and bacon, piles it on Texas Toast, and gives it the grilled cheese treatment on the flat top. The description may lead some to think the dish suffers from an overabundance of sweet ingredients, but the bacon goes a long way in mellowing out the other toppings. 

The centerpiece of the menu are the burgers. They are the best thing you can order and come in three sizes: the pterodactyl, the mammoth, and the triple g, and can be topped with eight types of cheese. Their homemade pimento cheese is by far my favorite and goes especially well when topped with their chili; the added warmth helps to get it extra melty. As far as toppings go, you have three distinct styles to choose from, or you can always customize your burger. The three topping styles are ding dong, westside, and everything. Ding dong style is something wholly original to Pinky’s, consisting of sriracha, peanut butter, and their homemade cilantro honey slaw. Westside style is their take on the Southern burger: chili, slaw, onion and mustard. Everything style is your classic American burger toppings: lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and mayo. The three toppings all have their time and place, but if it’s your first visit to Pinky’s, dive right into the ding dong style. It’s a pleasurable mash-up of sweet, savory, and spicy. 

I have a lifelong aversion to the corndog, a quintessential carnival food. Even the name offends me. The mere sight of a corndog can make my eyes squint, nose flare, and mouth pucker up in disgust. So, it was always something I avoided at Pinky’s, even though it was one of the items that Guy Fieri gushed over. I caved after innumerable visits and ordered the Viking dog. It was, much to my chagrin, actually damn good. The homemade batter takes it to the next level with a sweetness and levity that’s often lacking in its cloying, cafeteria cousin. 

Bar food is a category undergoing a renaissance, and a fresher appreciation of what the cuisine is trying to do is well under way. At its core, bar food is comfort food. If it fulfills its role as such, bar food has done its job. It’s when culinary creativity is combined with those same comforting parts that bar food enters a new category — as Pinky’s has done, year after year.